Timur the Conqueror

1370–1405 CE — Central Asia, Timurid Empire

Today: Central Asia (capital Samarkand, modern Uzbekistan)

From Samarkand, the Turco-Mongol warlord Timur — known in the West as Tamerlane — carved out the last great steppe empire through campaigns that left towers of skulls outside the cities that defied him, while making his capital a jewel of art and architecture. His empire fractured after his death, but his defeat of the Ottoman sultan bought Christian Europe several decades of reprieve.

Worth knowing: Timur's campaigns may have killed as many as 17 million people — around 5% of the world at the time — yet he turned Samarkand into a wonder of learning, and his great-great-great-grandson founded India's Mughal Empire.

Pattern: Military-technological disruption — A weapon or tactic upends the prevailing balance of power and renders an old defensive or offensive order obsolete.

Entry 141 of 240 in Precedent, a walk through the whole human story in order.